Terron Armstead – October 7, 2024
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Monday, October 7, 2024
T Terron Armstead
(Tell me what this victory did for the team, because I would think it’s a huge confidence boost.) – “Every win is huge. They’re hard to get, none of them taken for granted or to be minimized. We had a lot of things that we need to clean up in order to move forward and get more wins, but it’s always better to correct, address issues after a win – through a winning environment.”
(What did you think of the run game? I don’t know if the 41 carries impresses you more or the 193 yards, but what did you think of the run game?) – “That’s just something that needs to be a staple for us moving forward. We have to be able to establish that run game, no matter the opponent, no matter what day we play on, that has to be a part of our offense. The short yards, the long gains, all of it – we have to lean on it and be a huge emphasis towards moving forward.”
(Was there something said in the huddle or on the sideline before that big series you had where it was sort of established, “OK, we’re going to run now and it’s up to you guys to pave the way?”) – “No, not really. Not really, no special message or motivation at all. We just – execution was better, and we still had issues there. We still had some penalties that went against us that could have made that drive even more successful. Just moving forward, no matter what the call is, we got to go execute and without the negatives bringing us back after we have some positive gains. So that’s going to be something that we continue to do, and the more we can do that, we can execute without the penalties, our offense will start to look a lot better.”
(The amazing thing about the NFL is you guys had, obviously, a rough stretch but you look at the standings and they’re all jumbled. What is your sense of what’s next for this team? What lays ahead down the road of the Miami Dolphins?) – “Not looking down the road, or the standings either. It’s still early. We’re not trying to seed or position, we’re just trying to focus on what we got going on, so Indy is next. That’s it, man. Just lock in on Indy – establish the run game, try to be dominant in the run game and go get a win.”
(What is the fun thing about blocking for RB Raheem Mostert in particular with his unique sort of gliding style? What’s fun about that?) – “Just everything that he brings – that intensity, that competitiveness, the passion that he plays the game with is a big boost for the offense, that energy that he has. He’s not afraid to challenge guys either to put their best foot forward. So great to have him back in there, that leadership. Blocking for Raheem, (De’Von) Achane, young dawg ‘J-Wright’ (Jaylen Wright) is too like, they’re literally one – any play, they can go to the house. So you want to be the one that springs them for that long gain. I feel like we get one of those off my block and it goes yard, I take that as my touchdown so we love to see that.”
(What impressed you about RB Jaylen Wright?) – “He’s a dawg, man. He’s a dawg. He’s physical, he’s confident. You got a lot more Jaylen Wright coming. So I’m excited to see what he’s going to bring, get more experience, more reps. I love his mindset. I love how confident he is in his ability.”
(Can you help us understand why the pre-snap penalties keep coming? I know there’s a lot of motion, a lot of pre-snap motion, a lot of shifts – is it that complicated to understand for the offense? For QB Tyler Huntley? For an offense under Huntley? Take me inside of that please.) – “It’s tough, man. There’s a lot of nuances in an offense, especially when you have a lot of motions, you have a lot of personnels. You have quarterback changes so the cadence could be different; he might hold the cadence longer than others or he wants to operate faster than Tua (Tagovailoa) or maybe Skylar (Thompson). So the illegal formation, illegal shift, guys are taking their time getting set as opposed to ‘Snoop’ (Tyler Huntley) being in more of a hurry – we got to get set off of him. So those small little details or nuances that nobody really pays attention to until it’s a problem. Crowd noise can be another thing too, so that’s something that we have to – we can’t continue to do if we want to play winning football. Point of emphasis, we got to keep continuing to lock in on our details. That’s been the biggest difference from why we’ve dropped some games and were able to pull that one off yesterday.”
(What’s impressed you about the job that OL Rob Jones has done?) – “Again, he’s a dawg. He’s physical. He goes after it, no excuses. He might not always be feeling the best – get rolled up or whatever and he’s just going to keep pushing. He’s a warrior, man. I love playing next to him.”
(As far as what you saw from this team last week in practice and how it paid off, what did you see? There were still some errors, but you guys put it together on the road in a clutch situation. What did you see from practice that translated to the game?) – “We saw improvement. We saw improvement from a technique standpoint. We saw improvement from operation, alignment, assignment, not having as many MAs and all those things that stop you from winning, but we have to clean up a lot of those things at an accelerated rate in order to be a real team, you know what I mean? We could squeeze by, but (if) we want to be a team that’s going to be worth anything as far as the end of the year, we got to clean those things up at a little bit of a faster rate.”
(How did your HBCU experience prepare you for the NFL?) – “I haven’t been in college in 12 years. (laughter) But no, man, it definitely was a part of my make up going through that HBCU experience. Not having as many resources, just being able to work with what we got and band together as a team, as brothers. When I had gotten to Arkansas-Pine Bluff, they had never won a championship. So my senior year, we won the first championship in the history of the school. So just coming in and seeing everything work full circle and we start to lead the way and change the culture, it definitely became a part of who I am.”
(Does the bye week come at a good time or would you guys rather keep playing now that you have one victory here?) – “We roll with what’s ever on the schedule. We can’t ever really slot it or say what because it’s different for different people. We got people dealing with injuries or something so it’s perfect time for them, others just kind of just getting back and wanting to get into a grove so it depends on the individual.”
(WR Odell Beckham Jr., could you tell any tangible bounce or anything from the team from his presence?) – “Yeah, his presence alone. His presence alone – I’m not sure what he did statistically yesterday, but just having him in there, being on the field, know it’s another reliable target to go to, especially third down. His ability to win one-on-one matchups will be big for us moving forward.”
(What have you seen from CB Jalen Ramsey? He’s a guy – looks like Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver is really maximizing his skill set by moving him around. What are you seeing on the field and leadership wise?) – “I think we still haven’t seen the full Jalen Ramsey experience with ‘Weave’ (Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver). I think we’re starting to unlock some things now, adding a couple of packages, but it’s going to be more Ramsey, more of an impact, more getting involved. He’s a special human being. He’s an athlete like very few on this earth so for him to be able to be at the point of attack for a lot of plays, it’s advantageous for us. I think as we move on throughout the year. We’re going to see more Ramsey being in more spots.”
Zach Sieler – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins DT Zach Sieler
(On getting the win heading into the bye week)
“We’re 2-3 and the whole season is ahead of us. It’s great getting a win going into the bye week, but there’s a lot to correct. We did it, we won, but I think we have a lot going forward for us to work on and work on what worked today.”
(On how he thought the game went)
“Our offense was moving the ball and I had total faith. We have powerful running backs and the ground game was awesome today. I don’t care how we win, if we move the ball, we move the ball. There’s no ugly victories. It is hard to win in this league. I don’t care who you are or how good your team is, or what the score is. We did it, we have things to clean up, but we did it.
(On if he thought the defense played well)
“We played good, but we can play better. That’s how we look at it, always get better; always keep improving.”
(On if they had a specific goal defensively to control the game)
“Defensive line-wise, we always go in thinking we are going to stop the run and take control up front to do our part to win the game. You can only control what you do and when you try to do too much that is when things go bad.”
-DOLPHINS-
Jonnu Smith – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins TE Jonnu Smith
(On getting the win in a close game)
“The only satisfaction relies on winning. We got the job done and that is all that we came out here for and I am going to enjoy this one. It’s just another game on the schedule. Winning in this league is all that matters. Each week is its own challenge. There are different ways of winning, but at the end of the day, in that column there is only win or loss. Every week defensively, offensively, special teams, there are different scenarios that help you win games and sometimes you have to lean on certain things. Obviously, objectively, you want every group to come together and operate as one. It doesn’t always go that way but at the end of the day we figured out a way to win.”
(On getting a win heading into the bye week)
“You don’t want to go into a bye week with however many days off with a loss. You want to go into the bye week with momentum and I’m glad that we got it. Now we’ve got to keep rolling. I’m going to spend some time with my family, relax and kick it a little bit. Spend some time with my wife and kids. I’m going to try and catch a game (at his college, FIU).”
-DOLPHINS-
Jaylen Wright – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins RB Jaylen Wright
(On getting the run game going this week)
“It felt good, after a hard-working week of practice. We were able to focus on the details and paying attention and having the right aiming points and right tracks and everything. I just feel like it all came together in the second half. I felt like we were getting good movement thanks to the offensive line. We were getting good movement you know and getting it up to the second or third level. It opens things up for the run to produce great runs.”
(On the drive at the end of the game and Tyler Huntley’s play)
“He is a pro and he is here for a reason. Coach brought him in for a reason. He is somebody we can lean on, you know someone who he is leader already and he has only been here for like three weeks. I feel like he has done a great job in the system for how short of a time he has been here. Just him being out there, just him getting everyone lined up and paying attention.”
(On the getting the win)
“This win has been needed. We have had a rough past few weeks, you know what I am saying. But that is just the beat of the game. We put those past games in the past and you know we just have to stay in the present. We got a win this week going into a bye week and then we come back with the same mindset to win.”
-DOLPHINS-
Raheem Mostert – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins RB Raheem Mostert
(On the offense playing from under center)
“Either way it doesn’t really matter, just get the ball in our hands, and we will try and make it work. They were giving us some good looks, at the end of the day we just try and exploit them and take advantage.”
(On overcoming the first half mistakes)
“It was fairly tough. You see what’s going on like when we were in the red zone, and then the ball gets snapped behind us and Ally [Alec Ingold] recovers the snap, little things like that, are just putting us in a bind, but honestly we just have to overcome those things.”
(On how not to have the mistakes get the team down)
“I guess you just have to have a talk with the guys and you know after that the whole thing happened, I just jumped right in and said, ‘everyone let’s go, let’s pick it up, and that’s not how we play ball. We have to stop making these critical mistakes and go out there and do what we do.’”
(On how it feels to be back)
“It’s been good and I don’t know what my stats are but I really don’t care. I’m just happy we got the biggest stat which is that W, and honestly it feels good. Just watching the team from afar and the sidelines these past couple of weeks, it has been a little bit of a mental stressor but at the same time it has been one of those things that I just have to get healthy and get back out there for the boys and I was able to do that today.”
-DOLPHINS-
Calais Campbell – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins DT Calais Campbell
(On his thoughts after a game like that)
“That’s a character-building win, you know. A lot of stuff went wrong, it’s like, man that was a pretty ugly ballgame, especially in the first half. But one thing we didn’t do is we didn’t flinch. We didn’t relax, we just stayed hungry, kept fighting, kept believing and found a way to get the win when it mattered. Your big-time players have to come up with big-time plays in big-time games and the way we started running the ball in the second half was inspiring. We still gave up too many yards rushing on defense, there’s a lot to clean up, lot of ball that we can work on. But we’ve got a bye week, we’re going to study ourselves, we’ll figure out how to get better and come out of this bye and try to get another win.”
(On if it was a frustrating day even though the Dolphins came away with the win)
“When you get a win, especially after we haven’t had a win for a few weeks, I don’t know, you can’t be too frustrated. I feel pretty good right now. It could definitely be better. We will grade it, we will clean it up and we will try to improve. But you know, it’s been so long since we’ve got a win, I’m just going to enjoy this one. 24 hours, 24 hours to enjoy it.”
(On the fact that other than the turnover that set up the Patriots’ touchdown, how the Dolphins defense didn’t give up many yards)
“One of the things we try to preach is coming off of turnovers, having a sense of urgency and keeping points off the board or hold them to three. We had opportunities there. It was a bust and also (inaudible), they capitalized. It’s the NFL and they’ve got some good players. They made a big-time play. That’s something we know we can fix and we fixed it and we played a lot better. They had a really good game plan in the run game and way too many yards. One thing we’ve learned is we’ll fix it the following game, let’s just keep playing ball. Nobody has to try to do more than their job, just keep doing your job and we’ll be okay.”
(On the bye week and if it comes at a good time for the team)
“It really doesn’t matter, right? This is the time, so we’re definitely going to study ourselves and during the bye week, I always try to go back and watch every play and see what I was doing. See what works, see what didn’t work and then kind of figure out going forward, do more of the stuff that works and do less of the stuff that doesn’t.”
-DOLPHINS-
Liam Eichenberg – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins OL Liam Eichenberg
(On his thoughts about the offensive struggles in the first half)
“There are definitely things we need to improve on. I can only speak for myself and I need to go back to my technique and fundamentals. We’ll watch the tape on the plane and see what we need to correct.”
(On being able to run the ball in the fourth quarter and get the win)
“It’s great. We were effective in the run game during the game and especially at the end. It’s something we are going to keep building on. It’s something we can’t give up on so we have to keep working and keep trying to improve.”
(On what was working well today)
“With us, it was just staying committed and trust in what we are being coached. Throughout the week we were coached to go outward and not upward and I think that carried over to the game. Pad level was emphasized and that is something we worked on that came through today.”
(On the seven-and-a-half-minute game-winning drive)
“That was tiring. You never really count the plays, but you’re kind of just looking around and just waiting for the next play, but it’s all about one play at a time. Definitely at the end though, that was a tiring one.”
-DOLPHINS-
Alec Ingold – October 6, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 6, 2024
Postgame – at New England
Dolphins FB Alec Ingold
(On his touchdown)
“Any fullback dive might be the day-one install for every offense in America, high school to Peewee, Pop Warner, everything. It was cool to end a 17-play drive like that. Credit to the offensive line, I didn’t have to do anything. Center, left guard watched their guys, they climbed up to the linebackers, so for a two-yard run to cap a statement drive is something that we needed desperately. As a team, to score a touchdown at that moment, it was a team drive, it was a team touchdown. So, I think it’s really a testament to all of our work over the last month or so, trying to get back right. It was a long drive capped off by a nice touchdown.”
(On this being the first time the team has had a real physical presence this year)
“I think it goes back to trusting things. We were running the ball quite a bit in the first half. Whether it’s a penalty here or a little procedural thing there, it kind of got us off track. We get four-yard runs, six-yard runs, but we trusted each other. Coaching staff, all the way down to the players. Doing your one-eleventh. That’s all that a running game is. A full team playing all four quarters. And I don’t think, like you said, we haven’t seen that quite yet out of our team. It’s something we’re working on, it’s our process that we’re building towards, so to see a seventeen-play drive in the fourth quarter, when we need it, I think was pretty cool for our entire process, for our entire organization to go through that together.”
(On going back to Miami with a win)
“I think you’re a couple plays away from a win or a loss, and somewhat of a sloppy execution game you could say. Being able to validate that the process that we’re building towards something. You see glimpses on tape, week-in and week-out, then you have the results of a loss, it can sting, it’s frustrating, it’s demoralizing, it’s tough. When you get that win, you’re able to say, ‘okay we’re on the right track, we’re building towards something right.’ But it’s not good yet, it’s not good enough yet. So, that little tweak in the mindset, fighting to find that silver lining I think is extremely important for our team going into a bye week 2-3, to be able to right the ship, to be able to continue to cross the Ts and dot the Is and make sure we’re a better football team at the end of the season than when we started.”
(On if any other plays from the game stand out to him)
“Yeah I think Jaylen Wright (RB), definitely stepped up big. One of his biggest runs of the day was called back because of a holding call. To see him not blink, to be able to go back and convert on a first down later in that same drive, that I think was really cool to see. Raheem (Raheem Mostert, RB) to come back and be able to play physical, you see him, he’s the fastest guy on the team, one of the fastest guys on the team. To be able to run, yards after contact and push that pile, doesn’t seem like a whole lot but second and three is a whole heck of a lot better than second and eight. To be able to find those creases, I think both of those guys played really hard, really physical and it was really cool to see them flourish in the fourth quarter like that.”
(On Tyler Huntley in the huddle)
“His personality was coming out in a number of different ways, and I loved it. It’s more than just a play call, right. As a quarter back, when you get a little bit more comfortable, he’s been here a couple weeks now, to be able to see his little impacts, his little points of emphasis in the huddle, being able to make guys lock in on their assignments and details and understanding the circumstance of the game, I think that was really cool for Snoop to be able to do that for our offense because that’s what a leader is. He’s coming in a tough spot as a quarterback and to be able to have command, to be able to find that confidence to voice himself, for guys to listen and respect that was everything that you could hang your hat on for this offense right now.”
(On if there was a point where the offense could feel the command from Huntley)
“I think that was in the second half. To understand that we were going through adversity, mishaps, things we can’t control. Whether it was a wild snap, a blocked punt, a missed field goal, we had all those things happening in the first half. To be able to have that confidence and command and say ‘no matter what happens, we can’t control that, we can control this right now’, that was pretty special to see. Anybody can have command when it’s all going good, but when you’re playing from behind, when it’s gritty like that, when you’ve got to get a couple first downs to string along a drive and have command when it’s not going well, I think that was the biggest respect Snoop got from all of us.”
-DOLPHINS-
